REVIEWS AND NOTICES OF BOOKS. II3 



had been done, and advise what should be done, to improve 

 the forestry of that continent. 



The author has certainly obeyed his instructions, and the 

 work is of a much more comprehensive and thorough nature 

 than the title suggests. His criticism is principally concerned 

 with the mismanagement of the Australian forests in the past. 

 We are told that enormous areas representing untold wealth 

 have been burnt and slashed as though the primary object 

 was to wipe them out with the least possible delay, and that 

 past Governments have themselves actually destroyed Jarrah 

 belts, carrying timber worth ^^o per acre, to sell the land to 

 settlers at from 20s. to 30s. per acre. 



The chief troubles appear to be fire (accidental and deliberate), 

 a desire to form "settlements" (which latter, in many cases, are 

 unremunerative to the settler through lack of subsidiary occupa- 

 tion in his slack seasons), and popular and political ignorance 

 of forestry, with the result that the forests are unprotected, 

 unregenerated, and even non-demarcated. 



The advice given is explicit, and broadly set out and weighed, 

 and compared with the results obtained in other countries. The 

 main headings are — 



1. Demarcate the forests definitely and finally. 



2. Protect them (with a staff of 1600 foresters, at a profit of 



;^i 2,000,000 per annum). 



3. Appoint a free and separate Forestry Department, with 



full and perpetual power. 



4. To attain these ends it is necessary to immediately establish 



schools of forestry to train the necessary men, and by 

 propaganda to educate the people generally and awaken 

 the nation to the fact that forestry is of vital national 

 importance. 



The author gives figures to prove that even if Australia to-day 

 thoroughly organises her forests, she will have to pay, during 

 the next thirty years (as a penalty for the neglect during the 

 past one hundred years), a sum that will accumulate at 4 per 

 cent, during that period to no less than ^588,000,000; of this, 

 ^335,000,000 will be spent on imported timber based on a 

 future import of ;^6,ooo,ooo per annum. 



This publication should be in the hands of every Australian, 

 and in the hands of every Briton, for it is easy for us to see 



VOL. XXXII. PART I. H 



